


Defying Gravity

by karenninaaa



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: College AU, F/M, Modern AU, Pepperony gift exchange on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 21:02:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17311802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karenninaaa/pseuds/karenninaaa
Summary: If you fall, you fall. There's no undoing it no matter how much you resist it.





	Defying Gravity

**Author's Note:**

> For [citrus-girl](http://citrus-girl.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. She has amazing fanarts for pepperony!
> 
> First off, this is my first time doing, pepperony college au, please be gentle with me. It's kinda hard to write and characterize young tony and pepper. And about college stuff, I'm not from the US so i have no idea how uni's work in there. All i have for references were some movies and huge help from Google. Also, the timeline for this fic is in the present time coz 90's world is a lot more complicated to write. 
> 
> Lastly, this is an Unbeta-ed chapter. I apologize in advance for all the typos and grammatical errors you're going to encounter along the way. Though, i tried my best to clean it up.
> 
> Without further ado, enjoy!

Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation explains that there is always a force that exists between two objects or masses. This force is what people knew as gravity. People also exert gravity, though it wasn’t enough to pull things towards him, because the Earth exerts a larger force out there that pulls on things of greater force than a human. 

But for Tony Stark, that wasn’t the case with Pepper Potts.

Not from afar on the hallway, Tony saw her coming out of the lecture hall together with a red-head he knew as Romanov.

As if there was a pull of gravity from her, his feet started to drag him towards her. He had picked up the paper that fell on the floor along the way before he strode to her direction. He easily matched pace with them as he walked by Pepper’s side.

“Hi, Pep-”

Pepper turned to him. He should be glad that he could easily get her attention but her expression was a total one-eighty degree for someone who wanted to talk to him. Because she looked like she didn’t want to talk at him at all. Her expression was in between exasperation and annoyance. “What on earth do you want this time, Stark? When will you stop bothering me?”

“Maybe never?” Tony smiled charmingly at her, though he doubted that she would be affected by any of his charms.  He held out the paper he had picked up earlier. “But I think this belongs to you, so I just wanted to give it to you.”

“Oh,” She blushed.

“Yeah, oh,” It would have been nice if he was the one who made her blush like that but it was probably due to embarrassment. Still, it was cute.

Pepper snatched the paper out of his hand.

“See you around, Pepper.” He had started to walk away from them but not until he heard Pepper’s retort.

“Please, feel free not to.”

“Not a chance!” He shouted back not even daring to look back. He was smiling bemusedly.

Upon meeting her, he instantly knew that she was someone who would defy all kinds of science he believed in. Because Pepper Potts exerted a greater force as if she was the Earth and Tony, a mere human, couldn’t help but be drawn to her.

* * *

“Wow, Tony Stark was really into you,” Natasha mused out loud to Pepper when they reached another lecture hall for their next class. They sat on one of the vacant seats.

That would have been an accurate description of the start of Pepper’s semester if she would say so herself. It had started out of the blue when Tony came up to her one day, and started to chat up with her as if they knew each other long enough to strike up a conversation and catch up on things. But it wasn’t when it was the first time that they had officially met. Pepper was initially confused why Tony Stark was talking to her all of a sudden, but it didn’t take long enough for her to realize that she was probably his next target, because Tony Stark was a notorious playboy of the century. He would flirt with anyone like it was his life mission.

Pepper promised that she wouldn’t fall for it. She was smart enough not to fall into his trap, like most of the college girls who had gotten caught by his charms easily.

After their class, a blonde girl marched up to Pepper and cornered her on the lawn area of the university.

“Are you and Tony dating?” She asked crossing her arms. Her eyes caked with mascara and eye shadow narrowed at her.

“Not this shit again,” Natasha muttered behind Pepper.

This wasn’t the first time someone or precisely some blonde girl, or brunette (it depends) came up to her armed with only one question: if she and Tony were dating. That question was becoming the question of the semester by how often that question would pop up every other day. A lot of girls, who were _well-acquainted_ with Tony, were obviously not happy by the attention that Tony was giving her. Pepper was so tempted to tattoo in her forehead the words, No we are not dating so leave me the fuck alone.

“No, we’re not,” Pepper answered shortly

They were about to walk passed Blondie when she spoke. “Really? You sure that you are not pretending to be this innocent, pure and know-it-girl but in reality, you’re the type who just wanted to get in on every guy’s pants.”

Pepper’s blood started to boil. Honestly, her stress level was probably high as Mt. Everest’s peak. Between her paper and exam’s due this was not exactly she needed right now.

Natasha looked like she was ready to leap in action and defend her.

Pepper held her wrist stopping her.  She turned her head slightly to this blondie she didn’t even know. They were shoulder to shoulder. “Oh, are you talking about yourself?”

 Blondie obviously seethed in anger as her eyes narrowed even more. She hissed. “How dare you?”

“You started it,” Pepper said coolly.

Blondie was about to move, probably to attack Pepper but Natasha was faster.

“Try doing something, babe, and you’ll end up bald this semester. My hands are strong enough to pull some hair out of someone’s scalp.” Natasha said softly to her, the threat was evident in her voice.

That did the trick as Blondie backed away and continued to glare at Pepper.  Natasha wasn't the type who would start a catfight but she had a reputation. No one would dare to mess with her. Good thing, Blondie was aware of that.

* * *

“I can’t believe this is happening,” Pepper plopped down on the bench underneath a tree. She was leaning back on her seat. Her head was tilted back as she looked up at the leaves of the tree. A ray of sunlight was seeping through the branches. Natasha was sitting quietly beside her.

“Thanks for the save earlier, by the way,” She glanced at her friend.

Natasha just waved her hand. “I’m more concerned that the people coming to you were getting more aggressive each day.”

“Right, what should I do then?” Pepper faced her frowning. “My semester couldn’t go on with every girl of this uni out for my blood because of that Stark.”

“Then why don’t you talk to Stark about it? Maybe he can do something about those girls harassing you.”

“God knows where he’s hiding. The only time I was able to see him was when he’s popping out of nowhere to annoy me.”

“Exactly,” Natasha was looking at something behind her.

Pepper turned and saw Tony with a dark-skinned man walking in their direction. Natasha had mentioned before that the dark-skinned man was James Rhodes. They were best-buddies and inseparable when Tony wasn’t fooling around with the eligible girls of MIT. Tony’s face visibly lit up upon seeing them. He walked faster towards them, leaving Rhodes behind.

“Hi, Pep-!”

“Don’t you Pep me!” Pepper stood up and met him halfway, seeing him every time brought nothing but never-ending annoyance to her.

Tony looked taken aback as Pepper stood defiantly in front of him. “W-what now?”

“What now?!” She exclaimed. “Oh nothing really, just my perfectly quiet semester got ruined because you happened.”

“Uh-”

“Can you give a word to all your girlfriends that we are not dating and tell them to leave me alone?” Then she jabbed her index finger at his chest. “And so do you! Don’t ever come within my five feet radius or so help me God!”

Pepper was breathing heavily. Their faces almost inches apart. Meanwhile, Tony's eyes were wide as he leaned away, distancing himself from her. She could be scary when she wanted to.

He took a step back.  “Why do you hate me so much?”

She scoffed crossing her arms. “Didn’t you hear me? My quiet life got ruined because of you. Honestly, I don’t even know what the girls see in you when everything seemed like a joke to you.”

“Why don’t you try and see it-”

Pepper barked a laugh. “Never, not in a million years. I am not like the girls you usually hooked up with. Unlike them, I’m smart enough to stay away from you. I’ll never fall for your charms, Stark.”

“Right, I believed you.” Tony Stark said hooking his thumb on his jeans’ pocket. “You’re obviously immune to my charms.”

Pepper wasn't expecting that. She expected some snarky or flirty comments just to prove his playboy reputation. Though, she didn’t show her surprise when her gaze remained steel at him. If this was a different ploy to get her, she wouldn’t fall for it.

“Look, I don’t know why you’re acting like a ballistic missile and as much I would like to cool down your overheating nerves, I can’t promise you anything.”

Pepper narrowed her eyes on him.  “Just . . . just make your girls or whoever they were, stay away from me and you too, that’s all I ask.”

With that, Pepper turned on her heels and walked to her friend who remained sitting on the bench. Natasha was quietly watching the scene unfolding in front of her. “Let’s go, Nat.”

* * *

She didn’t remember.

It was clear to Tony the very first time he had approached her at the beginning of the semester.

And it was sort of comical in its own way because Tony was usually the one who forgets what had happened last night and not the other way around.

But he vividly remembered the freckles dusting off her cheeks and her blue-blue eyes. She was completely drunk but her voice was earnest. There was sincerity in her words, though there was sadness in her smile.

Tony Stark remembered it all. How she had seemingly shared something a part of her and so did him.

That was probably why he couldn’t forget that night. There was no physical contact that had happened between them but it felt so intimate.

And Pepper had forgotten it all.

Tony would have laughed because karma was now biting him in the ass, giving him nothing but a pang in the chest.

As time went by, it was like he was starting to see her everywhere, by the library, on the bench, on the hallways and on every corner of the university. That’s when he also started to notice small things about her. She was maybe tough on the outside but there was softness in her. She was smart and observant that she wasn’t afraid to speak her heart out.

Frequently, Tony would be left in the corner staring at her from afar, mesmerized and enchanted by her wits and smiles.

And it was too late to realize that, he was falling and rolling towards her as if he was the apple that had fallen from the tree and he had fallen to her.

“What was that, man?” Rhodes, his best friend, asked him after Pepper and her friend had left them standing on the field.

Tony shrugged. “You know the usual, it’s not the first time some girl out there came to me.”

Without looking, Tony could feel his friend’s eyes studying him. Even his friend was aware that something was shifting, something had changed.

* * *

Pepper proved that Tony listened to no one when a paper airplane had flown in her direction. She was sitting under a shade of a tree one afternoon in their university grounds. She was doing one of her home works. But then, her concentration got interrupted when a paper airplane landed on top of her notebook sitting on her lap.

She looked up. Tony was standing a few feet away from her with his thumb hooked on his jeans' pocket. He pointed with his other index finger at the paper airplane that was sitting on her lap.

“Read it!” He shouted.

Pepper was so tempted to crumple the paper and threw it back at him but she didn’t. She wasn’t that cruel. After reading whatever on that paper, she promised that she was going to walk away from him if he couldn’t do it himself.

She unfolded the paper. In boyish and messy but still readable handwriting, she read:

_Sorry about the girls that harassed you. I already heard what happened. They’re not going to bother you anymore._

There was a bee that was doodled at the end of the message, though she ignored that. Instead, she raised an eyebrow at him. “How can you be so sure about that they are not going to bother me anymore?”

Tony just shrugged. “Because I said so,”

“Right,” Pepper said sarcastically. “Because you’re Tony Stark who gets whatever he wants,”

“Not everything,” Tony corrected shouting over.

“Oh really?” She rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, I’m standing over here, aren’t I?” He said. “I can’t even go to you even if I wanted to.”

That’s when Pepper stood up and walked away. She swore to herself that she wouldn’t get swayed by him. She was going to prove that she’s different.

* * *

Pepper was running, tearing her way through the hallway while blaming mentally her alarm clock. No, she blamed herself because she overslept and she was late for her class. Professor Logan was strict and didn’t accept latecomers on his class. He only had one rule; all students that came after him in the lecture hall would not be accepted. She couldn’t afford to be not accepted when they would have a quiz. Not taking the quiz also means an F on her grade and that would greatly affect her GPA and that would affect her scholarship.

She looked down at her wristwatch, 08:56 a.m. She cursed. Professor Logan comes in at nine o’clock pronto. She wouldn’t make it.

“Hey Pepper!”

She almost stumbled down on the hallway as she groaned. She easily recognized that voice. She didn’t need him right now or ever. Tony was jogging backward ahead of her.

“Let me guess, you’re gonna be late?” Tony smiled wickedly at her.

“Yes! That’s why get out of my way if you don’t want to get run over. I have a quiz I don’t want to fail just because I was late for his class.”

“Yikes!” Tony dodged her as Pepper, never slowing down, climbed the stairs.

“Who’s your professor?” Tony shouted over from behind.

“Professor Logan!” Why Pepper was answering back was beyond her. But it wasn’t the important thing right now when she was about to fail her quiz. Pepper in her entire college life never failed at anything. She reached the second floor and she was out of breath. Her thighs were straining. She felt like she suddenly joined Track and Field and she was losing. The lecture hall felt so far away.

“Oh, I see! Knew him,” Tony was still behind her when she slowed down.

Her lungs and thighs couldn’t take it anymore. Her cardio wasn’t that strong. She couldn’t make it anyway. It’s already nine.

“Why did you stop?” Tony was now standing a few feet ahead of her. “Professor Logan doesn’t accept late comers!”

“I’m already late, look at your watch.” Pepper exhaled. She bent over holding to her knees, her sling bag falling from her shoulder. “It’s useless.”

“It’s not like you to give up so easily,” Tony stated.

Pepper raised an eyebrow at him.

“Quick! Come right after me. It’s not yet too late.” Before she could do anything, Tony was running.

“Wait, where are you-?”

“Time is ticking, Pepper!” His voice echoed.

She ran after him.

She rounded on the corner and saw Tony had cornered Professor Logan on the far end of the hallway and a few feet away from the door of the lecture hall. They seemed to be talking about something. The older man’s back was facing her direction.

Wait, technically, Professor hadn’t entered the room yet, so . . .

With hopes rushing back in her veins she made her way towards the lecture hall not until giving Tony a last glance.

Tony inconspicuously winked at her.

She entered the room conflicted between gratefulness and disregard for his existence.

* * *

Pepper wasn’t sure why she sought Tony Stark the next day. She found him with Rhodes. They were on the grassy ground at the back of one of their university buildings. They were talking while playing catch. They were just idly throwing a tennis ball at each other, back and forth.

She wasn’t sure why she was standing behind a tree, not wanting to eavesdrop on whatever they were talking about. She actually wanted to thank Tony for what he had done to her yesterday. Yes, she let her moral conscience won over because no matter what the circumstances were, Pepper knew how to be grateful when she received help. Especially when that said help literally saved her life and her grades.

But she didn’t know how to show that gratitude when there’s a line she had drawn herself and not wanting to cross it.

“See you later, Tones!”

She looked up. James Rhodes was leaving as he waved goodbye to Tony. Then he was walking away in the opposite direction and Tony was left alone.

“So, how long do you plan on standing there, Pep?”

Pepper froze.

Tony turned in her direction, still holding the tennis ball. He tilted his head at her, gazing at her with curiosity dancing in his big brown eyes.

She was still frozen in her spot not knowing what to do while Tony was waiting for her.

She decided to step out of the shadow of the tree.

When she was on the hearing distance, she spoke. “I just want to thank you for what you did yesterday.”

Tony nodded. “Okay, no problem.”

“Yeah, that’s all.” She didn’t know which way to turn around to get away. “I- I . . .”

“Did you pass?” With a flick of his wrist, the ball was bouncing up into the air and down to his hand.

“W-what?”

“You said you had a quiz. You sounded like it’s a matter of life and death.”

“Yeah, it truly was.” Pepper answered fidgeting on the strap of her sling bag. “And yeah, I passed it.”

Tony smiled. “I knew you would. Wanna play catch?”

“Huh- what?”

Then before she knew it Tony threw the ball towards her. Thank God for her fast reflex and she was able to catch it before it hit her squarely on the face. Tony was laughing.

“Hey-!”

“Come on Pep, throw back the ball!” Tony shouted, still laughing. “You can’t play catch if you don’t throw it back.”

Pepper looked down at the ball on her hand. “I don’t wanna play-”

“What afraid that you can’t properly play catch and it was just a beginner’s luck that you were able to catch the ball the first time?”

She threw the ball back at him hard just to prove that it wasn’t a beginner’s luck at all.

“Ow!” Tony caught the ball but winced at the impact of the ball on his hand. “Man, you really hate me that much, huh. I can totally feel it.” He threw the ball at her gently.

“Yes, I am!” Pepper caught the ball and threw it back at him not as hard as before but not that gentle either.

The ball was going back and forth between them as they occupied the middle spot of the ground. They were standing a good distance away from each other. Her bag was laid forgotten feet away from them.

Then Pepper remembered something and she got curious. “Why?”

 “Why what?” He raised an eyebrow at her.

“Why did you suddenly start bothering me? Why now when we were just probably passing each other on the hallways before?”

“You don’t remember,” Tony threw the ball at her.

“What?” Pepper almost didn’t catch the ball as she fumbled for it. She looked up wide-eyed at him.

“Let’s stop playing. That ball is yours now for a keepsake,” Tony was striding away.

“W-wait,” Pepper ran after him while clutching the ball. She stopped him by holding his arm with her other free hand. “What do you mean, I don’t remember? What did I do?”

But Tony wasn’t listening to her when his eyes were focused on the hand on his arm. He looked up at her open-mouthed. “What happened to your five feet distance?”

Now, Pepper felt like she had touched something hot when her hand jerked away from his arm.

Tony burst out laughing. “God, if I just knew earlier that curiosity would break your barrier. I should have done it sooner.”

“What do you mean by I don’t remember?” Pepper insisted.

“It’s for you to figure out, Miss Potts,” Tony’s eyes were shining. “Here’s the hint, last spring. Just come back to me when you figured it out.”

* * *

Pepper was sure that Tony was just playing with her. It was just his never-ending scheme to get to her. She tried to rack her brain for whatever happened to her last spring that ultimately pushed Tony to enter her life. But she came up with nothing, as in nada, zero, zilch.

Tony had probably made it all up. So she decided to focus more on the equation she was trying to solve. She needed to take advantage of the quietness of the library. However, she ended up staring at her notes, when she couldn’t solve the problem at all. It was frustrating. Why there were a lot of things she couldn’t figure out lately?

A piece of paper slid in the desk towards her. Pepper looked up. Tony was sitting a bit to her right on the other side of the table. He pointed at the piece of paper.

_You looked like you were having a tough time, need help?_

Pepper scribbled back:

_Yes, it would be a big help if you would just tell me what the hell I had forgotten?_

She crumpled the paper and threw it inconspicuously in his direction. It landed in front of Tony. He opened it. He softly chuckled after reading it. He wrote back then threw the paper to her. She straightened up the paper.

_No dummy, I mean the equation you were trying to solve. You were burning holes to your notes._

Pepper wrote.

_Forget about it. This is all your fault._

She threw the paper at him. She started to gather her things and put them on her bag. Before she could fully stand up, Tony was behind her holding her shoulders and pushing her down to her seat.

“You can’t just tell me that it’s my fault and leave.” He whispered seating beside her.

“Then just tell me what I need to know.” Pepper hissed at him.

“Nope, I’m still enjoying this little thing going on between us. It’s my thread to you so you wouldn’t entirely ignore my existence.” Tony continued to whisper.

Pepper narrowed her eyes on him. “For all I know, you just made it up.”

A look of hurt flashed across Tony’s face. He spoke softly. “Just so you know, that’s the realest night I’ve ever had with you.”

Pepper gasped. Some students glared daggers at them. So she decided to head out of that place. “Come, get up.” She tugged Tony’s arm.

“Where are we going?” But Tony was standing. She dragged him out of the library.

They were outside the library when she let go of his wrist and turned to him. She looked around first to make sure that there was no one within their earshot. The last thing she wanted  was to be the gossip topic with Tony Stark in the university. She spoke. “S-so, obviously the thing that I had forgotten was a night that we’re together somehow . . . ?

“Correct.”

All possible scenarios flashed in her head at once. Impossible. Pepper was good at remembering and memorizing things. How could she forget something? Especially if someone as infuriating as Tony was involved. Then it hit her, the only kryptonite to her sharp brain. Alcohol. And the only time she could have lots of alcohol was parties. She had been in a few parties last spring and that must have been where she had met Tony. Then her thoughts spiraled down even more to the worst possible case scenarios. . .

“We didn’t do something that involves . . . physical contact of some sort. . . .” Pepper trailed off.

“Physical contact of some sort?” Tony frowned. Then he laughed. “You mean one-night stand?”

Pepper looked around alarmed, scared for a second that someone or anyone might hear them. To her relief, the cost was still clear. She looked back at him. “Y-yeah something like that. Natasha dragged me in a few frat parties last spring and I got drunk and I probably did something I wouldn’t normally do when sober. . .”

“I wouldn’t take advantage of a drunken woman,” Tony stated flatly. “But if you want to-”

“Please, stop talking right there. You’re going to start talking nonsense.”

“Right,”

“So we didn’t kiss or make out... .?”

“I guarantee you that nothing like that happened between us,” Then he whined. “I can’t tell you more! You’re gonna figure it out sooner and there’s part of me that doesn’t want you to figure it out.”

Pepper stared at Tony. There’s a sudden fragility in his eyes as if he was scared.

“Y-you . . .” She trailed off. “Didn’t do something illegal, right?”

Then that fragility was gone as he rolled his eyes. He groaned exasperatedly.  “Aside from hacking into our university website and changing the theme color into neon pink, I didn’t do any illegal or murder anyone. And please don’t ask for more because I’m not going to answer any question regarding that.”

“So you’re the one who did that thing that had lasted a month, huh?” She couldn’t help but sound impressed. But she immediately waved her hand away in dismissal. “But whatever, I’m going.” She turned around.

“That’s my secret, please don’t tell anyone. I don’t want the Dean breathing down on my neck.” Tony followed her.

“I’ll think about it.” Pepper continued to saunter away.

In the end, she told no one.

* * *

Pepper didn’t cross path with Tony until four days later when she was walking down an empty hallway after her class. She was about to use the back door of their building as a shortcut towards her dorm when she heard someone yelling not from afar. She immediately went in the direction of the voice.

That’s when she saw Tony, with his head bowed down to his chest as the older man in a pristine suit yelled at him, how Tony was a good for nothing son creating some cheap machines that wouldn’t even measure up to the amount of tuition that the older man was paying for him.

“Well I guess, it truly runs in the genetics, dad. I mean the good for nothing.” Tony dared to look at his dad.

Pepper frowned. If that man was his dad, it must be Howard Stark, famous weapons inventor, CEO of Stark Industries. Well, Tony’s life was known to almost everyone since their family was pretty famous for the massive revolution of weapons and engineering technology.

The back of Howard’s hand made contact with Tony’s cheek. The slap was so hard that its sound reverberated. Pepper stifled a gasp as she covered her mouth with her hand. Tony was just looking at his side. His expression remained neutral as if the slap didn’t bother him at all, as if he was immune to it.

“How dare you?” Howard fumed at him. 

Tony gazed at his dad. “You know dad, I’ve tried so hard but I’ve always been your good for nothing son and I’ve never been part of your time, not even once. What? You’re going to send me to the Bermuda Triangle this time just because I’ve never reached your expectations?” Then Tony was backing away as he spread his arms wide. “Be my guest, you know you are doing us both a favor of not seeing each other’s face.” He walked past Howard, towards Pepper direction. He didn’t see her just yet but he would be if she didn’t move sooner. So she backed away hastily. The last thing she heard was Howard’s voice shaking in anger.

“You disrespectful-!”

 

Pepper slammed closed the door of her dorm. She leaned back on the door as she regained her breathing. She ran all the way from that building towards her dorm. She ran as fast as her legs could take her. She didn’t want to be caught eavesdropping on them. Though it was unintentional, she still felt kind of guilty for hearing something that wasn’t meant to be heard by anyone.

And all she could think now was Tony and the sadness looming over his face, something he tried to hide with sarcastic retaliation. All she could think was the anguish he was probably enduring because the world gave him no choice but to keep it in. Someone who was trying his best but still felt so worthless and stupid. She realized that Tony might have some privileges and status but those things couldn’t patch up and compensate for everything. And that made him not so different from everyone else at all.

She strode towards her desk. She opened her drawer and picked up the tennis ball inside. Then she headed out.

“Hey, where you going?” Natasha asked when she ran into Pepper in the hallway of their dorm building.

“Going to see a friend,” Pepper didn’t slow down on her walk as she walked past her.

“You don’t have any friend, aside from me!” Natasha called out.

“Well I do now,” She shouted back not even bothering to look at her.

Pepper reached Tony’s dorm room. She raised her hand to knock but the door had already opened. James Rhodes was at the door. A surprised look was etched on his face upon seeing her.

“Pepper!”

“You know me.” Pepper frowned surprisingly. She dropped her hand to her side.

“Of course, Tony wouldn’t stop talking about you. I’m James Rhodes by the way, Tony’s dorm mate and friend.” Rhodes extended his hand for a handshake.

“Pepper Potts but you already knew that.” Pepper accepted the handshake.“Uhh, he’s talking about me?”

He suddenly laughed. “Don’t worry. He only talked about good things.”

“Right,” She answered slowly. “So, uh, is Tony there?”

“Actually, I was about to see him,” Rhodes answered. “But since you’re already here, why don’t you go to him instead. He’s having a bad time and you’re certainly going to lift up his mood.”

“I’m not that funny.”

Rhodes chuckled. “Just go to him. He’s in the same place where he had given you that ball.” He pointed at the tennis ball in her hand.

“Of course, you knew that too,” Pepper said pertaining to the tennis ball. “But thanks, I should get going.” She turned around still deciding what to feel about Tony talking about her to other people. There was part of her that was curious about what else he had said about her.

She found Tony lying in the middle of the clearing where they had played catch before. He looked like  Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian man on the grassy ground, with his arms spread wide and his feet apart. She walked up to him. His eyes were closed so he didn’t see her just yet. Pepper cleared her throat looking down at him.

Tony opened his eyes. His eyes widened upon seeing her. He bolted upright to sit.

“Pepper!”

“Hey,” She smiled at him and sat down next to him.

“W-what are you doing here?”

“Rhodes said that you need some cheering up so I came here.” She looked down at the ball in her hand.

He groaned. “Why would he do that? Did he tell you anything else?”

She glanced at him. “He didn’t have to, since I kinda overheard everything, you know, in the hallway.  . . with your dad-” His eyes widened. She continued hastily. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on you, it’s just I was about to go that way and you’re there. . . . I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Tony said. Then there’s a pause. “So obviously, my life’s a mess. . .”

“You know,” Pepper started staring up ahead. “Our entire family was an achiever. My mom’s a renowned dentist. My dad works as Chief accountant and had received employee of the year three times in a row. My brother is in Harvard getting his degree and consistently being top of his class. So, it kinda falls on me to not break the stellar record of our family. And sometimes, it felt so-”

“Suffocating?” Tony supplied.

She whipped her head at him, astounded by how much he truly understood the feeling. “Y-yeah. What I’m trying to say is, I could relate to what you’re going through even though our situation was different.” She paused exhaling. “I just want to say that you’re not alone so you can always talk to me just to get it off your chest. Or if you just want someone to hang out with, I’m here. Our life here inside the university is very hard and keeping everything to yourself can be maddening. And sometimes, all we need is just a break from that everything.”

“A break.” Tony echoed smiling at her. Then he exhaled. “I can’t believe Pepper Potts wants to hang out with me now.”

“I swear-!”

“I want a break. Pass me that ball.” Tony was standing up dusting off his jeans. He held out his hand to help Pepper stood up. She accepted it.

Soon they were standing feet apart from each other. Pepper threw the ball at him.

“For the record Pep,” He shouted. The ball was in his hand. “You’re doing great. You’re the most hard-working and dedicated student I’ve ever met.” He threw the ball back.

She smiled catching the ball. “And Tony, I’m just gonna say this once but . . . you weren’t that bad at all.”

“Holy shit! Did you just say that-!” Tony was striding towards her. “That’s a compliment! Pepper Potts just complimented me!”

“Stop shouting!” But Pepper was laughing.

“I just wanna say that,” Tony continued. “This is the best thing that ever happened to me and I will forever treasure this-”

“Oh, for God’s sake Tony, I’m taking it back-!”

“Touch move. You can’t take it back.”

Then something wet hit Pepper's cheek. She looked up at the sky. It started raining.

“Oh my god, let’s head back, it’s raining.” Pepper held Tony’s hand and tugged him.

“So?” Tony didn’t budge on his spot. “Let’s just enjoy the rain!”

“What?” Pepper looked back at him “We will get sick!”

“No, we won’t.” Tony gripped her hand tighter. “This is nice, come on!”

Pepper gazed down at their intertwined hands. She didn’t even notice at first that she had reached for his hand. The action felt like instinctual, didn’t even need to think about it. It just happened. She tried to pry her hand away.

“Nope, touch move,” Tony said to her, smiling. Then he pulled her as they ran around the clearing all the while getting soaked in the rain.

“Tony!”

It was as if the rain shielded them away from the rest of the world. Temporarily forgetting the ugly things of life. Because all that was left was their laughter as Tony did silly moves and as they chased one another.

“You are ridiculous!” Pepper chortled as Tony wouldn’t stop dancing silly.

Pepper stopped in her tracks, clutching her stomach when her laughter wouldn’t die down in her throats. Her stomach hurt, but it was a good hurt. She hadn’t felt that way in a while and it was great. Then she realized that Tony had stopped and he was now staring at her with a smile on his face.

“What?” She giggled.

“Do you know the Law of Universal Gravitation?” Tony asked out of the blue.

“Hate to break this to you but I’m a business major not a science nerd, like you.” For once, she let herself be free as she twirled and twirled around and embraced the droplets of rain against her skin. Her head tilted up in the sky with eyes closed. She never noticed Tony’s soft gaze following her.

* * *

Natasha was looking at Pepper with an unfathomable gaze. Pepper hated that sometimes, because she couldn’t gauge what her dorm mate was thinking, as if Natasha was seeing something more than what could be seen by the naked eye.

“What?” Pepper asked sitting on her desk. She had taken a shower and changed into pajamas. She was drying off her hair with a towel.

Natasha was sitting crossed leg on her bed. Her red-hair tied into a messy bun. There was a face mask on her face. She spoke after a beat. “You looked happy. You’re practically glowing.”

“Oh,” Pepper paused.

“You really had fun with that new friend of yours, huh?”

“Y-yeah, it wasn’t that bad. . . “

“That’s an understatement.”

In that brief moment, Pepper thought that Natasha was right. It was an understatement compared to the bliss that she and Tony had shared together earlier. She had never laughed that long or that wide in a long time that her stomach and cheeks hurt. It was the first time that she saw the goofy side of Tony, the side where he could be that funny or nerd. They talked and laughed about mundane things under the rain and it was . . . something...

“Yeah. . .” Pepper trailed off.

* * *

That bliss lasted for days and weeks. Though, sometimes, days could pass by that Tony and Pepper wouldn’t be able to see each other because of their schedules. But every time they would pass each other on the hallways, they would smile and look at each other as though their smiles and gazes held some secret message that only the two of them knew.

Pepper was sitting on the wooden table on their university ground one afternoon. The weather was fair that she had chosen to do her research papers outside instead of doing it in the library. Her laptop was on and her notes and paper scattered on the table.

“Watcha’ doing?”

“What else, my paper’s due.” Pepper didn’t bother to look up from her notes as Tony sat across her.

“Busy that much?” Tony asked.

“Yes, unlike you. I don’t have much free time,” This time, Pepper spared him a glance. That’s when she noticed his knuckles. There were cuts and bruises on it. She frowned and pointed at his battered hand on the table. “What happened to that?”

“Nothing.” Tony tried to hide his hand under the table but Pepper was quick to reach for his hand.

She grabbed his hand as her eyes narrowed on him. “You got into a fight, didn’t you?”

“Maybe?”

She narrowed her eyes some more.

“Fine. I might have given some asshole out there a few punches.”

“What? What if, you get into trouble because of that?!”

“No, I won’t and stop squeezing my hand, you’re gonna break it for real.”

Pepper let go of his hand as she rummaged something in her bag that was beside her.

“What’s in there?” Tony curiously leaned forward to see the bag.

She produced a small white box and put it on the table. She set aside her notes and papers.

“It’s not what I think it is?” Tony was staring at the box.

“What? Everyone was allowed to bring first aid kit.” She opened the box.

“Who does bring first aid in their bag on a daily basis?”

“Me and stop being a baby and give me your hand.”

Tony reluctantly did.

“Are you sure you’re not going to get in trouble?” She was putting anti-septic on his hand.

He was trying not to flinch from the stinging sensation as the antiseptic made contact with his cuts. “You know by now, you should start believing in everything I say.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Pepper reached for the small cotton gauze bandage roll in the box.

“That hurts,” Tony said.

“Yeah, the antiseptics usually stings.” She started to wrap his knuckles with the bandage.

“I was talking about your lack of faith in me.”

Pepper hummed.

“You’re not even denying it! Cruel,” Tony pouted. “Anyway, how busy are you, especially tonight?”

“Why?” She finished taping the bandage and raised an eyebrow at Tony.

“There’s someone I would like you to meet-”

“Tony?”

The latter two looked at the direction of the voice. An older woman in a fancy dress was standing a few feet away from them.

“And there she is, that was fast I thought we are going to meet tonight,” Tony answered looking at the woman.

“Who?” Pepper frowned at Tony.

“Mom,” Tony answered as he stood up. “Come on, let’s go greet my mom.”

“Mom?” Pepper’s mouth was hanging open but she followed Tony despite feeling suddenly nervous.

If that was the case, the woman should be the famous Maria Stark.

“Hi, mom! I thought we are going to meet tonight?” Tony hugged her mom as Pepper stood behind him trying her best not to be jittery.

“I can’t wait for dinner so I decided to drop by rather early. I was about to go to your dorm but luckily I saw you here.” Maria returned the hugged affectionately. Then she noticed Pepper. “And who might be this young pretty lady here.”

“Hello, Mrs. Stark. I’m Virginia Potts, Tony’s friend.” Pepper smiled.

Tony turned to her. “Your name is Pepper.”

Pepper just gave him a look. While Maria’s face brightened up at the mention of a friend.

“Oh, it was nice to meet you, Virginia. Please call me, Maria. ” Maria reached for Pepper's hands and held them. “I am so glad that Tony has another friend aside from James. He doesn’t have a lot of friends.”

“How about we go grab something to eat, first?” Tony interrupted. Then he looked at Pepper. “Of course, you’re coming with us,”

“But-“

“Oh, you are certainly coming with us.” Maria agreed. “I like knowing Tony’s friends!”

So Pepper went with them when she couldn’t say No to the Maria Stark.

Nonetheless, she didn’t expect her day to turn out like that and to meet Tony’s parent, something she never imagined that would happen. Later that day, after meeting Maria, Pepper was relieved that Tony had Maria as a mother.

* * *

Pepper swore that she wasn’t looking for Tony when she arrived at another dorm where a party was being held. The music was blaring. It was packed with a lot of people holding paper cups.

“Looking gorgeous, Pepper!” A girl with a thick black eyeglass and a girl she shared a class with, passed by. “Nice outfit!”

“Yeah, thanks!” Pepper smiled, scratching her neck a bit bashful. Natasha made her wear that dress. It was a navy blue fitted dress that reached mid-thigh. Her hair that was in usual messy waves was flat-ironed and straight. She had a light makeup on.  Natasha said that she was the only person that Tony was going to think of all day after seeing her all dolled up. Pepper insisted that she wasn’t dressing up for Tony but she just wanted to feel good about herself. Natasha rolled her eyes at her reasoning.

“Any luck of seeing him yet?” Natasha came up to her holding out a paper cup to her. Unlike Pepper’s hair, Natasha’s hair was in curls. She’s wearing a leopard print fitted dress.

“I wasn’t looking for him.” Pepper sipped on her drink and immediately scrunched up her face at the bitter taste of her drink. She glared accusingly at Natasha. “You were trying to get me drunk!”

Natasha laughed. “You’re funny when you’re drunk. Come to think of it the last time you got so wasted was last spring when-”

But Pepper wasn’t listening to her anymore when she saw Tony coming in her direction. He was with a brunette girl whose arm was around his waist and Tony’s arm was around her shoulder. Tony immediately noticed her too when they were nearing her.

“Hi, Pep.” Tony momentarily paused a few feet away from her to greet her.

The brunette was obviously jealous by the attention that Tony was giving to Pepper so she whined at him to go somewhere while giving him a wet kiss on the lips. He looked surprised by it. Pepper turned away. She couldn’t look at them anymore. Meanwhile, she stirred him in another direction leaving them behind.

“What the hell?” Natasha said flabbergasted. “Hi, Pep, really? That’s all?”

Suddenly, Pepper’s mood turned sour. Her party mood had been ruined. There’s a pinching sensation in her chest, one she couldn’t explain. That was why she tried to drown that feeling with whatever alcohol that was in her cup as she tilted her head back and drank it in one go.

“Do you want to go back to our dorm?” Natasha offered.

“Y-yeah, sure.” Pepper swallowed. There was an aftertaste of alcohol in her tongue. Sadly, the pinching sensation in her chest was still there. “I just remembered that I still have a paper to finish due next week.”

They walked back in silence towards their dorm. When they reached their room and Pepper was hopping around trying to get her wedge off of one foot, Natasha spoke. “You okay?”

That was when Pepper lost her balance. She fell on the floor with a thud. “Ouch, fuck. Why can’t I get this wedge off of my foot?” She tugged the shoe but the straps seemed securely wrapped around her foot. “How do I get this off?” She was fumbling for the lock of it but suddenly she felt like she had no strength to do that at all.

“Hey, I was asking if-”

“I’m not okay! I can’t get these stupid wedges off of my feet!” She shouted all of a sudden. The tone of her own voice surprised her too. She mumbled still fumbling for her shoes. “I was just frustrated. I don’t know what’s happening. I didn’t even drink that much-”

Natasha crouched down in front of her and helped her with the sandals. “You’re not frustrated about your shoes.”

“What else am I going to be frustrated with?” She continued to mumble as she rested her chin on one knee watching Natasha did all the work.

Natasha easily pulled one shoe off of her foot. She went for the next one. “Do you really want me to say it?” She looked up after her task was done. She set aside the wedge shoes. She plopped down on the floor in front of her.

“I forgot.” Pepper trailed off, her chin was still resting on one knee. She hugged her knees. Feeling vulnerable all of a sudden.

“What did you forget?” Natasha asked softly.

“In the brief moment that I was with Tony, I forgot the side of Tony I’ve known all my life because I’ve seen something different about him.”

Then Pepper remembered when they had met his mom and saw that Tony could be a loving son. She remembered that time in the rain and saw how Tony could be so ridiculous but fun to be with. She remembered his kindness how he helped her not to get late for her class and how he offered help with her home works and how he respected her five feet distance before. She remembered his sadness and pain and realized that maybe they weren’t so different at all and she was probably wrong about him all this time. That he was more than what he was letting on.

And Pepper started crying as her shoulder shook and as she rested her forehead on her knees. Because seeing Tony with another girl, was like waking up from a dream. That all the moments they had shared together lately weren’t real and they were probably nothing to him. He would probably forget all about it when he kissed and make out with another girl. But for Pepper, it would stay with her forever, because that was one of the moments when she was the happiest.

She cried even harder when the pinching sensation in her chest turned into a punched in the gut and that pain made her realize why she was feeling that way. She had just broken the promise she made herself. She would never fall in love with Tony but she did.

“I’m sorry,” Natasha said. “I thought, things were going great between you and Tony you know ever since last spring-”

Pepper’s head snapped at her. Her eyes stained with tears were wide. “What do you mean? Why are you just telling me this now?”

“Well, you said first thing in the morning as you suffered from the hangover that you don’t want to talk about it and you wanted to forget about it, so I never told you,” Natasha answered.

“Do you know what happened back then? I don’t remember it but he said we spent some night together and-”

Natasha suddenly laughed. “Yeah, you spent the night talking about the bees.”

* * *

Tony gasped as he pulled away from a brunette girl he didn’t even know the name. She was in the middle of unbuttoning his shirt. She was about to reach for his lips again when he spoke. “Let’s stop, I can’t do this.”

They were standing in the secluded dark corner at the back of the dorm where the party was happening. He wasn’t quite sure how they ended up there when all he could think about was Pepper in that goddamn dress. Pepper in that goddamn dress. Pepper in that goddamn dress.

And she was just so gorgeous that he didn’t know it was still possible for her to be more beautiful than she already was.

He initially thought that everything he felt for Pepper would eventually fade away soon so let his playboy persona remain. But boy was he wrong when Pepper was all he could think of while there was another girl present in front of him.

“-are you even listening to me?” Brunette hissed at him.

“I’m sorry, uh, Kath-”

“My name is Alexa, but I’m willing to let that go.” Alexa was starting to kiss his neck.

Tony stepped back to distance himself from her as much as possible. He started to button up. “Yeah, Alexa. I’m sorry, I don’t know if you heard me but we can’t do this anymore.”

“What?!”

But Tony was turning around and running. He went inside the dorm and yelled for Pepper’s name. Though, his voice got drowned out by the loud music blasting off the speaker. He held the arm of the first guy he had seen by the door. “Have you seen Pepper Potts, she’s business major-”

“I don’t know him, man, sorry.” Then he yanked his arm off and walked away from Tony.

“I know Pepper Potts.” Someone from behind him said. He turned around and saw a girl with thick black eyeglass.

“Where is she?” Tony asked urgently.

“She already left with her dorm mate Romanov.”

“Okay, thanks,” Tony said dejectedly. He headed out of that place.

Strangely, he was not surprised about that, because ever since meeting Pepper Potts, that’s all she had been doing, walking away from him.

* * *

Virginia Potts.

Tony remembered her name perfectly that night, last spring at a frat party.

He had met her in a house outside the university. She was drunk out of her mind as she stumbled into the backyard. He was sitting on one of those white plastic lounge chairs as he waited for Kirsten to arrive, or at least that was her name he remembered as.  He paid her no attention at first as he continued to sip on his beer bottle, watching some students fooling around in the pool ahead. He was leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. He sensed that she was looking at him.

He glanced at her. He was right though. She was staring at him. She was leaning forward with her cheek resting on her hand and her elbow was propped on her knee.

“What?” Tony asked sipping on the bottle again.

She looked at him straight in the eyes and spoke. “The bees are going extinct.”

Tony choked on the beer. He coughed almost spitting the beer but he managed to swallow it back. Yep. The girl was totally wasted.

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, okay. Poor bees.”

She nodded gravely. “Yeah, since 2006 the population of bees has declined. Pesticides, global warming, some of the reasons why the bees are declining. We should be worried about that because the crops species that provide us with ninety percent of the food, thirty-five percent of them are pollinated by the bees! Imagine if the bees cease to exist, humans are not far behind from extinction too!”

This wasn’t how Tony expected his night would go. He expected to get laid with some hot girl from a sorority. Listening to bees and human extinction were definitely not on his list about how he would spend his night.

But okay, since his date wasn’t coming, probably. He started to humor her. “Why do you care so much about the bees?”

“I feel bad about them. They must be the next dinosaurs that are going to fade out in history.” She answered miserably.

He agreed. “Yeah, and that would be an achievement too. Imagine your name headlining the news and newspaper. What’s your name?”

“Virginia Potts.”

“Yeah, Virginia Potts had saved the bees from extinction, hooray!”

“I don’t want to be on the news. I just wanted my parents to see that I’ve saved the bees so they wouldn’t ask for more achievements and I would stop drowning in their expectations.”

That was another unexpected turn. He glanced at Potts who was staring down at the lawn as if expecting a bee to pop out from there.

He sipped again on his beer. “You know what, can you include me on your mission to save the bees? You don’t mind sharing the credit, do you? I could use something like that to show off my parents too.”

Suddenly, Pepper stood up wobbly.

Tony shot up from his seat and held her arm before she went sideways. “Hey!”

“Come on, let’s save the bees so we can show it off to our parents!” Pepper said, sounding urgent.

“Come,” Pepper tugged his hand and lead the way.

“But-”

“Nonsense, we need to make our parents proud of us! We shouldn’t give up that easily!”

So Tony followed her.

That should be a huge red flag for Tony to stop talking and stop drinking because the parents were a taboo subject for him and he didn’t talk about it to anyone except to Rhodey. However, that night, maybe because of the influence of alcohol and maybe because he had this thought that whoever this girl was, she would also understand, he didn’t stop talking.

* * *

Tony was positive that Pepper was avoiding him after that stupid party in the dorm. He hadn’t gotten a chance to compliment her with her dress. Well, he was planning to when they crossed paths one of these days. But then, Pepper started going the other way, whenever they would see each other from afar and whenever he was about to call her name. Was she on some sort of five feet distance rule again and he wasn’t aware of it?

* * *

“It’s funny, how paranoid I was sometimes that I am gonna be a total failure to my parents, especially to my mom -I don’t care about my dad that much, but still I wanted both of them to be proud of me.” Tony looked at Pepper. They were walking along the quiet but well-lit sidewalk, away from the frat house they had gone to earlier that night.

Pepper nodded gravely at him, who was also walking by his side. “No, it’s not funny at all. I understand that. That’s why we should really find bees and save them. The bees would save us from total failure!”

Tony sighed as drunken Pepper staggered around searching for bees.

“Why are there no bees around here?” Pepper called out. Then she looked worriedly at Tony. “W-what if they had all gone extinct?!”

“No, they hadn't gone extinct yet.” He said patiently.

“Then why aren’t they here?!”

“Probably, they’re sleeping? Because it’s night? They also need to rest you know.”

“Is that so?” Pepper frowned.

Tony walked up to her and guided her to walk in the right direction instead of barging in straight on someone else’ house. “Yep, so why don’t we go home instead. You looked like you need rest-!”

“No! We need to find bees!”

“Yeah, keep your voice down or you’ll wake up the whole neighborhood. We’ll find bee’s tomorrow-”

Pepper had doubled-over as she tried to cover her mouth. Tony knew that look so he immediately stirred her in the direction of the lawn. She bent forward and threw up on the lawn. Tony rubbed her back. He kinda felt bad for the owner of that lawn. Then suddenly he could hear an instrumental of Hey Jude softly ringing out of nowhere.

“What’s that?” He tried to look around finding the source of the sound.

“My phone,” Pepper produced a phone as she continued to puke her guts out. She held it out to Tony. “Can you answer it for me?”

“You like the Beatles, huh.” Tony accepted the phone. Someone whose name was Natasha was calling. “It’s Natasha.”

“My friend,” Pepper groaned as she continued to vomit out the contents of her stomach.

He answered it. “Hello-”

“You’re not Pepper.” Natasha countered

“This is Virginia’s phone.” He answered.

“Yes, that is Pepper, who are you and where are you? Is she okay?”

“Currently puking her guts out but otherwise, she’ okay. I’m Tony Stark and we were at. . . “

Moments later, when Pepper stopped puking and when they were sitting on the curb talking about Yellow Jackets, a type of bee, Natasha finally arrived.

Tony looked up at her. “Thank God, you already came. I feel like I’m becoming an expert at bees and I am seriously considering starting up a honey bee business.”

* * *

Tony had finally cornered Pepper one morning after her class. She was alone and crossing the field when he stopped in front of her.

“Are we at war or something?” Tony asked.

She looked startled. “Tony,”

“Thank God, you haven’t forgotten my name.” He said, “So, why are you avoiding me?”

“I’m not avoiding you and I have another class to attend, so excuse me.” Pepper tried to dodge him but he continued to block her path.

“Nope. This might sound stalker-ish and creepy but I know your schedule and I know for a fact that your next class is at two in the afternoon. You still have three hours to spare.”

“That’s really creepy,” Pepper confirmed. “And please just leave me alone-”

“Oh, are we back on that? What happened? I thought we’re doing okay now.”

“Yeah, we’re good. It’s just that I have a lot of things to do.” Pepper managed to walk past him.

“But you’re avoiding me.” Tony pressed as he followed her.

“Because I don’t want to be one of your girls, okay!” Pepper said in outburst as she briefly paused and regarded him. Afterwards, she resumed walking.

But Tony held her arm stopping her. “You’re not one of my girls, you are my friend.”

“Why don’t you just go back to that brunette who was with you in that party last time? You looked like you had a good time. And she’s really pretty too.” She yanked her arm away.

Tony held her arm again.

“Tony, let go!”

He didn’t let go. He looked closely at her. “You’re still a lot prettier. You’re not jealous of her, are you?”

“Of course not!” Her face was red. “I said let go, Tony.”

He continued to hold her arm as he stared at her. “Did I just make you blush, Potts? Why do I have this feeling that you’re lying to me?”

Pepper was now glaring daggers at him, “Fine, I am lying to you. I was insanely jealous of that brunette girl and for one moment, I did wish that I was her. Because I had this fleeting thought that what we had these past few weeks was something special but silly me of course because you’ll never view it that way. Because who am I kidding right?  I was just no one. But congratulations by the way, because it seemed like your unparalleled charms worked on me too but I knew that all of this is one-sided so to avoid more complications and pain, please let’s just keep our distance like what we used to before.”

He froze, as his grip on her loosened. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. 

Meanwhile, Pepper was walking away, farther, farther, farther. . .

“You are wrong!” He suddenly shouted at her but she wasn’t stopping. The distance between them grew bigger and hell if he let that happened again.

He continued to shout starting to gain attention from the students around them. “Because you are Virginia Potts and you are the only girl I’ve ever introduced to my mother. And for the record, that brunette you’re talking about? Nothing happened between us because it’s you whom I constantly think about while I was with her. I can’t even remember her name. But strangely, I remembered yours perfectly. You are the only girl I can’t forget ever since the night you told me about Yellow Jackets.”

That made Pepper paused a few feet away from him. She turned back and looked at him.

“You might not remember it, but I did, I remembered vividly everything.  I still remembered our mission to save the bees from extinction.” He smiled at her.

A smile started to appear from her lips. It was Tony’s cue to run towards her.

Because Pepper Potts exerted a greater force as if she was the Earth and he couldn’t help but get pulled to her.

The students within their radius, who saw the whole exchange between them, cheered as Pepper reached for Tony’s lips.

 

**Author's Note:**

> All sciency stuff and bee facts are from Google. Let's just blatantly ignore all the inconsistencies out there in the fic. :D
> 
> Comments are appreciated for my first ever college au! 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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